LAS VEGAS – The way things are going for Demian Maia at 170 pounds, it’s got to be hard to not look back at the old middleweight days with at least a tinge of regret.

But that’s just what the Brazilian is trying to do. Maia went 9-4 in the UFC’s middleweight division, including a title shot loss to Anderson Silva. And let’s be honest – 9-4 at 185 is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

The losses came to Silva, Nate Marquardt, Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman – the latter his most recent bout at 185 before dropping to 170.

But since dropping to welterweight, Maia is 3-0, with each of his three wins seeming to be more impressive than the one before it. On Saturday, Maia (18-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) dominated Jon Fitch (24-4-1 MMA, 14-3-1 UFC) in the grappling department and cruised to a unanimous decision sweep at UFC 156, which took place at Mandalay Bay Events Center in las Vegas.

Before the win over Fitch, who lost for just the third time in the UFC, Maia had a welterweight debut win over Dong Hyun Kim that ended with a Kim injury – but even 47 seconds in was starting to go in Maia’s direction, and a first-round submission of Rick Story.

Maia was hoping to submit Fitch – one of the best submission defenders in UFC history.

“The strategy was to do what I did – go and try to take him down and take his back,” Maia said. “Unfortunately, I was not able to submit him because he’s very tough. I just realized when I got inside the cage and got his back, I said, ‘OK, now let’s try to do what I did in my last fight.’ But it just didn’t work. We had an ‘A’ plan and a ‘B’ plan, and the ‘A’ plan is what I did.”

Maia said Plan B revolved around the standup game and specific striking techniques he worked on to prepare for Fitch. But with the easy takedowns and ground control throughout the fight, he never needed to go there.

Fitch’s only other UFC losses came in a title fight against champion Georges St-Pierre in 2008 and a 12-second knockout loss to Johny Hendricks at UFC 141.

“I’m very happy because I won against one of the toughest guys in the division,” Maia said. “I just remember him losing to GSP and Johny Hendricks, and I was able to control him. Of course, I always like to submit (my opponents). I’ve been training a lot more jiu-jitsu nowadays to submit (my opponents) and give a good fight for the fans. But sometimes, it’s just impossible.”

That appeared to be the case against Fitch, whose highly touted submission defense was on display again, the way it was for his win over Erick Silva. But he never was able to get any offense mounted against Maia the way he was able to do against Silva.

So does Maia regret not dropping down sooner now that he’s become one of the hottest welterweights in the division?

“Yeah, I think that sometimes,” he said. “But you can’t go back to the past. So I just think ahead.”

Looking ahead just might put him right in the thick of things in the weight class. The welterweight division will see Georges St-Pierre (23-2 MMA, 17-2 UFC) defend his title against Nick Diaz (26-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) at UFC 158 next month in Montreal. And on the same card, four contenders will fight in an unofficial “tournament” – Johny Hendricks (14-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) meets Jake Ellenberger (28-6 MMA, 7-2 UFC) and Rory MacDonald (14-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) tries to avenge the only loss of his career against Carlos Condit (28-6 MMA, 5-2 UFC).

But UFC President Dana White said Maia could wind up fighting one of those four in order to get right into the title picture.

“It’s a good win for him,” White said. “For Fitch, he’s lost two of his last three – but he’s a tough guy, and the perfect way to describe the fight is, (Maia) out-Fitch’d Fitch. I mean, I said the same thing as everybody else was saying. After this tournament happens up in Montreal, he’ll fall in there with one of those guys and we’ll see what happens. But I see him becoming a No. 1 contender pretty quick.”

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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